Infographic: A Concise History of Publishing

Feb 15, 2017

Infographic – A History of Publishing

From Gutenberg to Bezos and beyond…

The publishing industry has been around in some form since man was first able to write down his thoughts. It’s had its ups and downs throughout the years, from books being banned and burned, to the introduction of new technologies revolutionising the way that books (and digital products) can be manufactured and consumed.

Along the way, newspapers and magazines were formed. Audio books were created thanks to the development of the phonograph and, later, new formats such as vinyls, CDs and digital downloads. eBooks become a reality because of the constant advancement of consumer technology and the widespread adoption of tablets, smartphones and e-readers. New services, like Amazon and CreateSpace, revolutionised the way that people buy books and the way that authors get their work into their readers’ hands.

For publishers, the rich history of the industry is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because there’s so much information out there to learn from, but it’s a curse because it’s a challenge to continue the innovation. Either way, it’s vital to study the past and to learn from its lessons, and then to apply those lessons when looking to the future. Nowadays, with ever more powerful technology and the rise of social networking, learning from the past and embracing the future is more important than ever.

That’s why we developed this infographic. To highlight snippets of publishing history – as well as some of the major developments – in bite-sized chunks, from the invention of paper to the five million eBooks now on sale through Amazon’s Kindle store.

If you’d like to feature our infographic on your own site, please let us know on Twitter so we can share it with our followers. If you think we’re missing a milestone or two in the evolution of publishing, give us a shout.